Friar's Wealth A Real Revelation

WEST PALM BEACH — Friar Angelus DeMarco did the Lord's work for 46 years. He taught liturgy and music. He played the organ.

Like all Franciscans, Friar Angelus took a vow of poverty when he joined the order in 1938.

But when he died in 1984 in an Arlington, Va., hospice of a brain tumor, the energetic, bespectacled priest was rich. He left an estate worth more than $870,000. How he got it remains a mystery.

He owned a home in Palm Beach worth $300,000. His lawyer, John Barrett of Miami, had been entrusted with $157,000 for the home's upkeep.

Friar Angelus had $100,000 in cash, almost $78,000 of it found in a safe in a fireplace at his home. Among his personal effects in Virginia was $23,000, $196 of it in coin, mostly silver dollars.

He left U.S. Treasury notes worth $115,000.

He had $102,000 in a money fund account in a Virginia savings and loan. He had lent $57,000 to a Virginia couple who couldn't pay him back. In the resulting foreclosure, he wound up with $43,000 and two vacant lots worth $10,000.

He had a 1981 four-door Volkswagen Jetta to tool around in when he was in Palm Beach.

And the art and antiques in the Palm Beach home still haven't been appraised, court documents say.

The New York-based Order of Friars Minor of the Province of the Most Holy Name wants it all. They filed suit Monday in West Palm Beach.

The Franciscans claim the friar's vow of poverty, tucked away in a New York archive, is a legal contract that gives them whatever material wealth he accumulated. The vow was signed, but not notarized, Sept. 17, 1938.

They can expect a fight from Friar Angelus' family. After taxes and expenses, the estate is expected to total about $690,000.